Writing for the BEP

Many of my parliamentary colleagues write regular columns for their local newspapers, but until now we’d not managed to get the Bristol Evening Post to let us do the same.

I suspect that the fact there’s a better political balance (well, a much worse political balance, but a more balanced balance, if you get what I mean) in the Bristol area since the 2010 General Election has led them to have a change of heart. There’s a weekly rota, and this week was Chris Skidmore, Tory MP for Kingswood, writing about the pupil premium (no more money in real terms, spread more thinly…and no requirement that it be spent on the pupil who attracts the funding, unlike SEN statemented children, though that’s not what he says, of course).

Next week it’s me. I’m almost certainly going to be writing about the student protests. And at some point Jacob Rees-Mogg gets a turn too…

Remember George was sacked by “my paper’s balanced” Norton after he criticised tax-avoider Steve Lansdown – who seems to own the city’s politicians and newspaper wholesale – for building Bristol City’s new stadium on the greenbelt.